About Jupia Consultants

Yes, I have a day job. I work with companies, governments, economic development agencies and other organizations on a variety of issues. While I am involved mostly in economic development research and planning, I have a variety of private sector clients for which I conduct demographic and economic analysis, industry profiling, etc. If you need a consultant in these areas email me [email protected]

14 Responses to About Jupia Consultants

Hi,
stumbled upon your blog/website when I googled Fredericton economy.

I am a Winnipegger, born and bred who wants to move to New Brunswick. lived a year and a half in Boston in 1995/1996 and have the idea that NB is Canada’s New England.

Am I insane to leave Winnipeg for NB? wpg has had an unjustified housing boom (my opinion) in the last three years relative to wages.

I work for minimum wage here in the catering/restaurant industry so why no go where there is less traffic and good home prices. I am a 42 year old single mom with two sons 12 and 15. anyways, it is rare for people to move from the West to the Maritimes unless they are in the military. but why? low population has some advantages…

@michelle deschenes
Welcome to the Maritimes, Michelle. I hope you feel, 30 years from now, that you made the right decision. It takes work to fit in here — Maritimers are friendly but not necessary welcoming at first — but the effort is worthwhile and should pay dividends for your sons as well.

I agree that the North is to populous to ignore but I do not expect much change from the status quo or the long decay. Consider that the new fisheries office that was to be built in Dalhousie ended up in Charlo. The sawmill in Belledune does not employ one person from belledune or that the planning commission for Belledune is actually in Petit Rocher. The whole area suffers from micro regionalism based on geography, language and politics. The lack of co-operation makes the area easy pickings for the rest of the country.

I am commenting in relation to our new political party (People’s Alliance of New Brunswick). We are looking for ideas and input as it pertains to fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets within government. If you have an idea or policy that could better direct our province in economic terms please let us know by going to our website (www.panb.org) and contacting us. Your input can help shape our future.

@michelle deschenes
My husband and are from Brandon, MB. We were in our early 30s when we moved to Ottawa in 1990 and then we moved to Fredericton in 2005. You cannot live in NB without a good education AND good, conversational French. If you don’t have either, welcome to the lowest minimum wage in Canada, poor healthcare (unless you have connections, like I did), and a province with a poor track record on women’s and minority issues. Also, you will not be able to afford a decent house on Minimum wage unless you move out to the country. These are facts. And it will get worse in the next few years because we have been unable to balance the provincial budget and tax base is shrinking as the population ages. Have you thought about Saskatoon or North Battleford?

Mr. Campbell;
I read your article/blog in the Globe and Mail with considerable interest and I am in agreement with almost of your opinions. I teach public opinion at Dalhousie and I daresay, a majority of Canadians would not accept that greed should ever become a value in our culture. Nevertheless, a little more emphasis on acquisitiveness could stimulate needed change in Atlantic Canada among people who view decades old dependency on equalization dollars from Alberta and Ontario as a solution to all their problems. Indeed,most do not see this as a bad alternative at all. No wonder the Prime Minister was so criticized for the very unpopular phrase ‘culture of defeat’to describe the Atlantic provinces (note not the Ottawa based bureaucratic word ‘region’).
In any case, given your argument why did you fall back on the overused post-materialism line that you are not interested in conspicuous consumption. Why not? I was taught that spending was good for the economy…if you have the money to spend and are not overly reliant on credit!!It seems to me that you are being inconsistent here or perhaps being a too pious post-materialist Canadian.
Anyway, a good read and I suppose my opinions come from being a ‘thirty per center.
Cheers,
PMB

I have been following your blog since I can remember. Flat out, you know more what is going on in this province then anybody I know outside my partner Herb. Your insights and knowledge of putting our economic situation into a column each week is brilliant.

What sent me over the edge to “Mad as hell state” is your article in honour of Stephen Covey. At one time I was a mother of seven children, the first five were from by my former husband’s first marriage and the our daughters were by our marriage.

What saved me when we moved here in 1990 to St. Andrews NB was Stephen Covey’s book. 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It was my bible of leadership in this land of NB. I was all over it to lead our family out of the insanity of Toronto to the full stop it seemed to NB and to help us focus during our transition.Since his book I became a fan and attended courses in Saint John when offered and have read all of Covey’s books and continue to purchase them at second hand stores to pass along to people when appropriate.

The only reason and I mentioned this to you is when the marriage dissolved and the reason why I stayed was the momentum by Frank McKenna and the liberal government. Yes they had their issues but gee, at least we were on the world stage of ICT, and other industries. The self esteem and an image of the province was elevated from farming, fishing and forestry. We were talked about and in the game of the best new industry going. This was life before Google!That is why I worked hard to get into electronic publishing.

Where are we today?….22 years later and frankly I think we are socially, economically and spiritual bankrupt. The veneer looks good for some who are on the “in”but the deeper issues are in a desperate situation and it effects the working poor, the skill for bills demographic and the middle class which is a significant number of our population.

Job losses due to the west,or Ontario. Roads, water almost in shambles in over 50% of our province,airports competing against one another instead of one international airport that could fly people to civilizations in one stop. Old boy networks with obnoxious nepotism that is bluntly obvious ( Mrs Blaney). Not to mention we keep building four lane highways with a declining population. Education that is falling behind in productivity. An over abundance of civil servants for each New Brunswicker which is another cash flow issue especially for the tax payer. A health care system that is eating up over 50% of our tax dollars yet we have doctor shortages and lastly…but I have more….the process of fixing all the above is so slow that any sane person would bolt out of NB because the politicians and leaders don’t realize or intimately understand that this is only a one way ride on earth, but for them they are doing it in comfort and protection while the rest of us pay for their world and suffer. Our lives are compromised while Rome is burning as our politicians haven’t got two clues what the “End in mind is and communicate it to us in consistent ongoing language we can trust.

Why am I still here? David, I am running out of reasons to stay…shortly I believe we will draw our line in the sand. Hope isn’t gone, it is a big world, and we take us where we go. We need a better landscape to blossom in and the thing is Here and I are one of those people who are comfortable, but I can’t take the ignorance, the slowness and watch our fellow human beings live with little while so many have lots. New Brunswick for so many is like trying to grow carrots in a rock pile.The proportions or have and have nots are too big and too obvious.

Saint John New Brunswick is no picnic and it is a microcosm of other communities. Our pension state regarding the recent John Ferguson trial for defamation made international news and right now this minute our City website doesn’t have an updated posting of pensions issues since 2008. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaH…please help us.

So, where is the Covey thinking? Where is the transparent politicians?
Why are the people so stuck in a cultural legacy (Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell term) of “oh no they may hurt me if I speak out”. I know as I have been shown the door three times in positions here in when I have spoken out regarding unfair, unethical, unbalanced practices,that were not based on Covey principles or just the plain Golden Rule. Talk about body blows based on insanity.

There you have it my rant, my frustration and my feeling of the state of our province. I will deeply miss Covey, thank goodness he left us his wisdom for those who get it.

My work is my life and one cannot compromise integrity for the sake of being associated with a group of people who have the wrong treasure map of principles to obtain a treasure.

hi david i read your colums in the telegraph journal and i really enjoy them it is the best part of the newspaper next to stuart mills you have a lot of good ideas and knowledge on the economics and the finical situation of nb also in regards to the investment of corridor resources what is thier future hold in regads to investment of this size of investment? thankyou keep up ther good work ashley underhill

I trust that you will read this in real time…..
Thank you very much for your mention (Jan 12 column)of Ivan Krastev and his warning (paraphrased) that it is easier to sell an idea by frightening people than by trying to engage them in a fact-filled debate. I see this principle in effect constantly in the matter of “climate”, where “activists” continually tell us that we are headed for a thermagadon because of our CO2 emissions when no proof of this assertion exists.

I read your article on Property Taxation in NB. I was in particular interested in your points on residential rental property taxes.

I wanted to provide you with some additional information on the double taxation of rental properties in NB. Here is a chart that we researched in 2016 (we are in the process of updating this for 2018 but not much has changed).

Comparison of 2016 Property Tax Rates Across Canada

Single %ge More
Family Home Apartment For
Province City Rate Rate Apartments

What this chart shows is NB rental property’s tax rate is 172% more than owner occupied properties; 192% (2.8/1.46) more than the other Atlantic Provinces; and 262% (2.8/1.067) more than the rest of Canada. The discrepancy is tremendous.

In your article on Property Taxation you mention some things about the rental business that I wanted to clarify. Although, property taxation for other businesses may be a small portion of the operating costs of their business, property taxes for rental residential properties is the single largest cost of the business. Don’t take my word for it though. The largest landlord in Atlantic Canada, Killam Properties, provides financial information on their website.

In the 2017 annual report on page 77, it lists the operating expenses of the business and because property taxes are such a big portion of the expenses of residential rental properties it lists this cost separately. It represents 30.6% of their operating costs. Now, they are also a Canada wide company so NB is intermixed with properties in the rest of Canada. In reality, many NB landlords are experiencing property tax expenses that are close to the equivalent of all other expenses in their operation combined – closer to 45% of the operational costs.

With this kind of magnitude it is obvious that property taxes is the single most determining factor in setting rental rates.

Therefore, tenants are being charged, through their rental rates, a property tax rate that is tremendously higher that those with the luxury of owning their own homes and much more than anywhere else in Canada. These are the facts in NB.

This is why the New Brunswick Apartment Owners Association has been fighting this issue for 13 years. From numbers that we have received from the Department of Finance this tax represents 0.74 of 1% of the budget and yet this over taxation affects what Statistics Canada has reported is a third of the population that rents – approximately 250,000 people in NB. We don’t know why, after going through all of these facts with the province, that they have not changed what must be the most incomparable tax to the rest of the country. The only thing we have been told is that they do not think the landlords will give it back to the tenants. This too is refutable as our association has made a commitment to the government to work with them to fix this discrepancy and to make sure that this fix goes back to the tenants.

Thank you for taking time to read this information. I can certainly sit down with you to go through any of our numbers if there are any questions.